May Review

May was a month of adventures.

A day at Folly Beach gave me some interesting images for future art projects. 

Got this picture in of Myriah finding the first 4 leaf clover, and the first 5 leafer, of the season. Isn't she adorable? She has a very inquisitive mind and can drive people half crazy with questions, but I love that about her. 

Had the house power washed and gave Mr. Richard a little something extra. He has been an admirer of my hand dyed cloth pieces ever since I met him. So, while he cleaned, I mounted this small piece onto stretcher bars for his office. He said that in the landscape orientation it looked like water in a pool. He preferred the portrait orientation as it brought out the feeling of trees by the waters edge. Cool,,,

I finished a Kumihimo key chain that was started at last month's meeting of the Palmeeto Fiber Arts Guild. Thanks Kathy for helping us learn the technique. The hubster and I filled 2 bags and a box with clothing that we took to our local Goodwill store. I received another quilt from the 'Ducks' to be longarm quilted and finished it off quickly. I do enjoy quilting things with a lot of colors and varied fabric patterns. The last image below is of our screen porch. We had it repainted after the cleaning. 

I had a super fun day at Pam's house, with her and Bev. Pam lead us in an adventure with felting wool roving over a vinyl circle, both sides each got several layers. We then mashed it, rolled it, and beat the ever lovin' out of it. A lot of excitement happened, as we cut a hole in one side, pulled that vinyl disc out, and started the felting of the inside. What a terrific day we had. 

And because I had so much fun, I just had to try something further a few days later. I'll just say that I have a long way to go to be 'good' at this but,, I'm already enjoying it immensely. Thanks Pam. 

I've been working on 4 small quilt tops. Third image is an improv piece that I have been using up the bits and pieces from the other three, 36x48 is the size I want all of them to finish at. No quilting until I can be ready with all 4 to go on the longarm at once. These will be for charity situations so I usually just do a very basic edge to edge design to get them done. I don't hand stitch the binding, it would slow down the other areas that I enjoy so much more. 

Pam came over for a day of ice dyeing 

and these were her pieces. 

I enjoyed those color combos of Pam's so much that I decided to take her green/blue/yellow grouping and try some pieces for myself. I did add Amber to the mix she used on hers. Did almost the same patterning, but they always come out unique one of a kind pieces. I love the serendipity of it. 

I've been working on preparing books, boxes, and vinyl 3-ring binders for some upcoming projects. 

Trying to see what techniques work and which ones aren't going to make the cut. CitraSolve probably not, it dissolved some of my gesso! Modeling paste, although I like texture, another probably not, as it'll tend to get worn off. The lower two images are of the vinyl binder that I applied ModPodge to. I was concerned that it may just peel off like a sunburn. I was pleasantly surprised this morning to find that I'd have to work at getting it off. Yeah, this will work. Then I used more as the glue and top coat for a piece of my silk fusion and the top layer of a napkin. I used this technique on the shells a month ago. However, this time I didn't tear my napkins into small pieces and it's pretty obvious by the wrinkles. I may go back in and add more memorabilia to disguise those lines, but maybe I'll do a dry brush effect over them with a soft taupe, or maybe,,,,   I bet you can come up with a few options also. Leave them in the comment section and we'll see where it goes. 

This post would not be complete with out some special acknowledgements. First image is off a beautiful wooden ring holder and box, turned by Bob from Orangeburg. It is sitting in front of the 2 dragonfly canvases Heather painted for me. I am so blessed with creative family and friends. Then there are 12 envelopes filled with fabric 'candy' that will go out to the far corners of the world. I did this as a blessing to a new friend. The owl fabric was found on my way to one of my guild meetings. I'm not sure exactly what it's final use will be, but there is at least one grandchild that has her eye on it. 

And the last image. It was a gift from my husband. I've wanted to take 'real' art lessons since I was in 8th grade. That's over 50 years ago! I want to be able to draw what I see and be able to recognize it 2 days later, lol. There are 36 lectures, with assignments. I'll be sharing my progress during the year. 

May was a fun filled month. 

June is on the horizon and I'm giving a little thought to posting the intention list again. I'm sure some of them are pretty obvious: drawing, finishing those charity quilts, making 4 more charity quilts with a bit more masculine feel to them, journal covers from old books, more silk fusion, another felted wool item. Oh my, this list is only the tip of the iceberg! Well, it's June tomorrow, I say, "let's melt an iceberg"!

Have a creative day, Luann. 

January Intentions

My Camellia has a couple of blooms opening already. But, I digress,,,

I invested time, during December, on Design Your Destiny 2017. This was a series of email worksheets from Kim, Sublime Reflections. As I worked thru week one, a reviewing of 2016, I saw, in writing, just how many projects were finished. Then during the second week, a list of what I was leaving behind helped me focus on what my time wasters were. Week three found me honing in on what was important to me, not just what I thought others wanted of me. My action plan came about during the final week. So, here I am 7 days into 2017 and I am content with my decisions. I'm also aware that I'm a creature of 'tweaking' and I'm fine with that as well. So, without further wordiness, here are the intentions for January:

1- Continue the kitchen upgrade. Countertops have been ordered and will be installed by 1/15. 

2- Livingroom furniture replacements. Ordered 1/3 and delivered 1/5!!! 1/6 all old pieces were gone. 

 

3- Silk Fusion Workshop. This took place yesterday. We each made a vessel and one or two more pieces. It was a great time of sharing. These are my pieces in the drying stage. They need another day or two before I can continue with forming the actual vessel and adding some embellishments to it. The other piece is more vibrant in reality, lighting wasn't complimentary. 

4- I'm still trying to decide on the next step for this crocheted sweater/vest. In my opinion, it is too narrow thru the body portion. I may unravel it, reball the yarn, and look for a different design. 

5- BCQC project needs to get taken to the next step. It's difficult deciding on embellishments and their placements. Once these are done I will be able to get it off the stretcher bars and framed for hanging. 

6- The kid size quilt, above on left, is waiting to be 'sandwiched', trimmed, bound, and sent off. 

7- Waiting in the longarm room is my red flower piece. After it's quilted, I will do a facing type of finish. I've also been have been thinking about some thread sketching before the quilting. Hmmm. 

8- Sort and organize my projects for each month. I've started this task, and it's surprising how calming it actually has been. Putting things into monthly allotments (with a list) has a way of freeing my mind of the constant thought, 'what is slipping thru the cracks?' I won't need all 12 boxes. So, I've already filled 2 of them with give away stuff. I think a great way to continue this will be, as I empty a box,  designate it for 'give away', and continue to fill it with appropriate items. This leads right into:

9- Continue to declutter and organize, not just stuff, but involvement as well. I'm like most creatives, very interested in too many things! I recently turned down a couple of great opportunities to expand into new areas. I wanted to say yes, sure, I'd love to. But I want to improve in the areas I'm already invested in. Hard decisions sometimes must be made. 

10- Beach Retreat at the end of January. I want to be prepared with 2 or 3 simple projects. 

That's it for now. As you can see, some of the projects are underway, others need attention. I'll keep you posted. 

And as always,

May God bless each of you with His Peace. 

December Intentions

First a picture,

it was taken by George H. Fischer, November 30, 2016 at Folly Beach. Beautiful image. 

December Intentions:

First, and most importantly, are our Christmas activities. We have Contatas to attend, family gatherings to travel to, decorating our house, get-togethers with friends, guild parties/meetings, and a possibility of company coming into town for a few days to stay with us. I'm looking forward to all of these moments for making memories. 

Second on my list will be to get all decisions made and work underway on our kitchen upgrade project.

Third is a yard project that will take a bit of our time and patience. 

Fourth will be getting my creative intentions together for 2017. With this in mind, I'm going to pack some things up, label them, and find a convenient spot for them. Getting the distractions out of sight helps keep my focus on the task at hand. 

I have no intentions for finishing specific projects.  I'll be enjoying the process of making progress. 

I will relax, enjoy time with family and friends, and be mindful of why we call it Christmas! 

May God bless you with love and joy in Christ 

Intentions, Progress, Finishes

I'll get right to it. I've gotten plenty of tasks accomplished over the past few months, but they weren't necessarily the ones I had intended to do. This happens occasionally and that's ok, but I want my focus to stay more on target. So, I'm going to try the monthly intention listing again. It's helped in the past, I believe it can do it again. 

 

First up:

I want this piece completed, now. It needs more quilting to lay flat. The binding has been prepared for it. The center will get a brown unit. A circle, Hexie, yo yo, or ? I'm determined to get this done by November 6. 

#2

Here's where my piece has progressed to for the Basic Crazy Quilting Course I'm taking online with Kathy Shaw. It's a free course, has 12 tasks, and is very doable. Check out her site for when the next course will be offered. I have plenty of tasks to finish out before I will consider it done. Projected completion is November 30. 

The red one is another impatiens placemat that I want done by Nov. 30. This one, unlike the yellow one, will not be appliquéd to the top of a background. I want to try a pillowcase/facing finish it. This will be a sweet little table topper when done. 

I have an idea for a quilt that is rambling around in my head.  It will use lots of different size blocks, scraps galore, and strips to give it a portrait feel. I have orphan blocks, scraps, and left-overs from several finished projects. I will be searching for one or two fabrics for bringing some cohesiveness to it.  I won't be using any basic neutrals, as that just isn't what I'm looking for. 

I also have a piece started that I refer to as my Pojagi piece. Not sure where I'm headed with this. 

There are also one knitting and one crocheting project. Both are sitting in the basket. I'm not pleased with how they look, so they may get undone and the yarn put back into a ball for the future. 

On my design wall is a piece I call Flower Garden. It has flower heads from hand dyed cloth fused on. I want to try couching the stems with my longarm onto it. Even if it doesn't turn out the way I want, I need to try. 

I think that my biggest drawback to getting some of my projects underway has been fear! Yep, fear of messing up what I've already done. That's why I'm counting on this post to help keep me motivated to make progress. Progress comes before completion! I really should print that out. Maybe even have it tattooed on my forearm! 

Well, that's enough for today. I'll be back as I get some progress made. 

Until then, Let's Create Today!  Luann

Review and Intention Time, Already?

August has flown by for me. Several intentions were accomplished, and many others were put on hold. This happens when I decide that I am going to make two quilts before I leave on vacation! And to top it off, I've never done either design previously and the pattern wasn't the size I needed! EQ7 to the rescue. But before I could start designing with it, I had to reinstall my program. That was one of the many glitches that came about from my problem with Windows 10vs7 back in the spring. Moving on,

I'll start at the beginning of the month. 

I finally cut and appliquéd my hexies onto the 'slashed' area of my One Block Wonder quilt. They did exactly what I wanted, without attracting any undue attention. This is now a FINISHED quilt.

A

Below are pillow cases for McKade and Eliza, two sweet kids in the UP of Michigan. They'll get these, and their quilts when I visit this fall. Under them are the cases that go with the OBW quilt. Four pillow cases FINISHED. 

I also worked on making an improvisational background for my yellow Impatien. The flower portion is a Judy Niemeyer design. My intention was for this to be my entry in Cobblestone Quilters Guild President 2016 Challenge. It is not quilted, but the backing and the binding are ready for it. Sad to say, it will be rejected as it is 1/2" shy of the minimum size. I know I could add another piece of border, but this is how I want it. And after quilting, it may miss the 30" minimum by more than that. I'll like it, and the person that will receive this will be quite pleased. Not a finish, on the list for September. 

This was where my 'pojagi-look' piece is at. I've since removed it from my design wall, after pinning all those pieces onto a sheer curtain panel. Most of them are silks, or very thin cloth. I want this to be a curtain art item, so I'm really trying to be ok with no batting or backing. The plan is to sew them to the curtain and then hang it for enjoying. Most of these pieces were received from people around the world that I traded surface design cloth with, back in 2014. September?

I realized that I had not gifted pillow cases to my sister or brother in law when I gave them quilts. So I made one to go with the Civil War reproduction fabric quilt, and a black and purple one for my sister. The other 6 pictured here go with 3 quilts that are on the 'waiting bench'. Eight more FINISHED cases.

Here's a FINISHED I'm proud of. I ordered these pole cradles for my quilting machine awhile back. They've been sitting in my longarm quilting area ever since. I knew I would enjoy the mobility they give when loading my quilts, but I just would freeze every time I thought about taking my machine's frame apart! I watched the video, read the instructions. Twice!  Why I let my inner critic even talk is beyond me! They were installed in less than 30 minutes, and YES, YES, YES! They are terrific. 

In my desire to reduce the basket of "what am I ever going to do with these left overs", I pieced this table topper. I had 19 blocks. Why not 20? Probably will find it someday in the bottom of another basket. I chose to add the gray sashing, but as I was doing this, I found that I had 15 blocks that were the same size and 4 that were SMALLER.  Now had they been larger it wouldn't have been quite the issue, but because of this I added extra depth borders to one block. The center fabric is an old timey print of canisters, the backing is coffee cups and coffee beans on green. So, Canisters On Caffeine is a FINISHED table topper. 

The next photo is something I saw at Coastal Coffee Roasters in Summerville, SC. They've got great coffee and some pretty terrific sandwiches. Their Breakfast BLT is my favorite. Check them out if you are ever in town. This is made from plastic water and sports drink bottles, some chicken wire, paints, and a lot of creativity! I'd love to make one of these for my screen porch. Maybe next spring?

I've gotten myself into working with yarn again. On Annie's Attic I found the pattern for this vest, along with a boatload of other wonderful designs. This was $7.00 for a digital pattern. I'll let you know when it becomes 'something in progress' around here. Looking towards December or January. 

Kathy Shaw has started another workshop for the basics in crazy quilting. If you google her you can sign up for her next one. I've done plenty of embroidery, but never this much precision. I wasn't sure I'd like it, but I approached it with an open mind, and I'm loving it. She sets out all of the perameters in this basic class and really gives you in depth instruction. There are 12 tasks and I have finished 6 this month. It is not a 'finish', but it is RIGHT ON TIME.  PS-Kathy Shaw's workshops/classes are free! 

This is a completed top. I used Labyrinth, by Debbie Maddy. She visited the quilt guild and many of the members took her workshop. I wasn't able to make that one, but I purchased the pattern. When I got home that night, I went to her website, clicked thru for her Craftsy class, and got it at 50% off. I was pumped, as it includes patterns for 3 other quilts. I used the EQ7 to help me get this to look how I wanted it to, and for the size I needed. Listening to the Craftsy class helped me pick up on her  techniques. Well worth the investment. I did use my Accuquilt Go to do all of the half square triangles. It made this easy to cut. Then I put each piece up on the design wall to make sure I would get the optical illusion I wanted. I used some of my hand dyed fabrics and I've ordered specific thread for the quilting. The top is pieced, but I won't call this a finish, until the binding is on. Must be done in September. 

My Jamaican Carpenter's Wheel quilt for Mr. Ethan is ready for the binding. This is from the Debbie Maddy class on Craftsy. I had a few thread issues, but all is fixed. I was told that he favored Rasta colors. When I asked what Rasta colors where, I was told, 'red, yellow, green, and black like the Jamaican flag'. So I Pinterest searched for Jamaican colors, found a palette of 8 and went into my fabric on a search. I thought I was the only one that liked such bold colors, but I've got a 16 year old Grandson that likes them too. Yeah!! Another one for September. 

Yesterday, when I just could not get in the right frame of mind to sit and stitch, I decided to clean up the crumbs, snippets, etc from my basket of trimmings from Batiks and hand dyed cloth. I've always wanted to do a confetti quilt, so I decided to fill some jars with colors for that future project. Both of my trimmings baskets have been cleaned. Last week I did the basket with commercially printed fabrics. 

Here's the bag of giveaways, that goes to guild for others to enjoy. 

That's where I'm at today at 3pm. I may go to the sewing room and get that binding on, or I may just go take a nap!  I have found that blogging about my month, and using pictures, shows "me" that I've had another creative month. The name of my blog is, let's create today, not let's get it finished today. So with that in mind, I'm off on my next creative adventure. Luann

Spring Refresh Underway

One of my intentions for this month is to get the house freshened up, aka Spring Cleaning!

After getting the house power washed I ordered fabric from Fabric.com to recover the cushions on the wicker sofa. Here are both fabrics. I bet you can guess which one is over 10 years old!

We try to have our screen porch be an inviting 'room' for ourselves, as well as guests. I spent quite a bit of agonizing time while these cushions got new covers.

 I'm very pleased with all of them.

So, the Spring Refresh is well underway!

Daily creative time included getting the bindings completed on my two Desert Sky pieces. They each will have different names, but that's the name of the pattern I used to produce the 'spikey' units. 

#1

And #2

My bindings are usually sewn to the back, wrapped over the seam allowance to the front, and machine stitched down. I have a couple of decorative stitches on my machine that I especially like to use. However, this time, for both of these, I machine stitched them to the front and hand stitched the wrapped binding to the back. Thought I'd document this, as my hands are rather sore and I'm not interested in getting carpal tunnel syndrome in them. This will only be done on possible show entries!

I enjoyed Thursday evening's Cobblestone Quilters Guild meeting. Our guest speaker shared her journey as a quilter. If you don't belong to a guild, check one out in your community. They can be a place to connect with others that enjoy similar pursuits. 

Friday evening was spent listening to The Summerville Orchestra. The tickets are so affordable, something like $70 for the two of us, for all four performances! Yep, you heard that right. Season tickets are $50 for you younger folks. That's only $12.50 per performance, 2 hours of great music. 

Yesterday we attended church in Orangeburg.  Went to lunch with a couple we know from OLC. We then dropped in on Mom for a few minutes. She was asleep, as is her usual now. But she did say, "Hello" when I put my hand on her arm, and said we'd come to visit. She then promptly went back to sleeping. It was such a blessing to see her so peaceful. God has been good to all of us. 

We stopped by The Edisto Rose Gardens before leaving Orangeburg. They have suffered some damage from last fall's flooding, but they are still spectacular. 

We walked every day, and have been paying closer attention to our eating habits. 

I viewed two different Craftsy classes this week also!

So for this update, I can say I've made progress on all 5 of my May intentions. 

How are you doing on your projects?